[Z8YOUNG]

Hello all,


I went to turn on my UltimateTV / DirecTV combo last night in my family room and the power wouldn't turn on at all. I unplugged the unit, put the power into a different outlet (which worked) and I can't get the unit to turn on! This unit is plugged into a Monster Power Unit ($400) so I know that it didn't get a spike of electricity.


So I went upstairs to watch TV in my media room which has the same brand of Sony Ult/DirecTV combo unit. I tried to turn it on and it too is dead. I have 4 other Sony DirecTV receivers (non-UltimateTV) and they all work fine.


I called Sony first and they said I needed to send back the units for repair. It then called DirecTV because I'm assuming that this must be some sort of programming or software problem because there is no way in hell that both receivers would die at the EXACT same time?!! They said they had no idea so they were going to send me out two new receivers to replace these.


Does anyone have any ideas on what is going on? This worries me that both receivers died within 3 months of use. It doesn't make me very excited about continuing on this platform if the hardware is this flaky.


Please help if you can!

 

[jerndl]

Quote:

Originally posted by Z8YOUNG They said they had no idea so they were going to send me out two new receivers to replace these.

That is a very suspicious statement by Directv. If they truely had no idea why would they send you two new units. It sounds like something fishy is going on. I've never heard of Directv being so generous.


Jay

 

[gpounders]

Something similar happen to me last August/September. I only have 1 Sony UTV and I took it back to Tweeter because I had the extended warranty and they gave me a new one.


I don't remember if it was plugged into a surge protector but it is now!

 

[orlfinfan]

Z8Young: the samething happened to me a while back. You said that you unplugged the unit from the power supply, but did you unplug everything from the the unit?


Doing so cleared up my power on issue but lead me to the another issue with the tuner.


As for DTV offering to send out new ones. You have the Platinmum service I'm assuming. It's there policy to replace the unit within 24 hours, but I have been given conflicting messages as to whether the replacement units are identical to the originals, ie utv for utv. You'll have to let me know when you get them if they are what you had.

 

[Z8YOUNG]

Because I had ordered the protection on the Units, they said they were going to send me out two new units (secured with a credit card) and I had to send the defective units back to them). What is strange about this is that both of these units were plugged into $400 Monster Power units so I can't imagine that a power surge or the power going out would kill both of these units. Who knows, I guess stranger things have happened?

 

[orlfinfan]

also, it turns out that my tuner was zapped by a surge through my cable line. It didn't affect tuner 2, but disabled Tuner 1. I now have both side running through a power strip for power, cable, & phone.

 

[schorne]

The post above is worth noting. Any wire going into your UTV can damage it via surge/spike whether it be power, cable, or telephone. I would presume an expensive UPS would have those connectors. Does yours?

 

[Z8YOUNG]

Yes, the phone and both cable inputs are running through the Monster Power unit. The funny thing is that I have a HP Digital Entertainment Center (MP3 player) that was plugged directly into the wall using the other outlet that the Monster is plugged into and that wasn't even phased. So I doubt it had anything to do with a power surge/outage. Just plain weird and makes me a little nervous about how reliable these devices are? Could this be anything BUT a hardware issue?

 

[orlfinfan]

I doubt that anything but a hardware problem would prevent a unit from powering up.


The insurance you purchased through DTV is new and I'm not sure if it's a smart business move for them. The are eating the cost of the receivers plus at $115 per unit to ship thim over night. All that for $59 it's steal for the consumer but not very cost effective for DTV unless they have a side deal cut with a parcel carrier.

 

[jerndl]

Where can one find out more about this insurance through Directv? Is it a fixed cost or does it cost x amount per receiver? Thanks.


Jay

 

[Puglas]

They asked me if I wanted it when I signed up my 3rd receiver. Just call them up and ask for it.


I turned it down, but I'm starting to reconsider.

 

[orlfinfan]

they asked me when I hooked up my second UTV. You get a dedicated Cust Service team and the perks that have already been mentioned in this thread.


Not sure if it's fixed but I paid $59 for the year. There was a monthly pymnt option. I have two UTV's connected.

 

[wrb]

Info... only .... could this have caused a short term problem...



DirecTV Losing Satellite



Tx to the tivo folks...

Link

 

[UncleJunior]

This is too weird. I really think something's going on here. My Sony UTV died tonight as well. It was plugged into a surge protector. Power went out for a two-second period. No lightening in the area. Now, nothing from my UTV. No power at all. Unplugged everything from the unit, still nothing. Is it worth calling DirecTV about it or should I just go ahead and overnight a new one? My wife is furious!

 

[Pagali]

I had this same thing happen to my RCA UTV about a month ago. There was a brief power outage during the day. It was dead when i came home from work and turned it on. I thought I had tried everything, but my son (who also has a UTV) said to pull the access card, wait a few minutes, then put it back in. It came back to life and has been fine ever since.

 

[Z8YOUNG]

Ok - I got it fixed. So now i have two new UltimateTV units coming to my door in a few days but all I needed to do was pull the access card. I ended up unplugging everything from the back, pulling the access card and waiting for 10 minutes. I then put the power in and it immediately powered up, I then inserted the access card and plugged in everything. I had to do this for both units. It's amazing that tech support didn't know that this could be done! Thank you all for helping me out with this problem.


The sad thing is is that my computer downstairs that I just finished building, is completely fried - and it was also plugged into a Belkin power suppressor. I'm going to have an electrician come and check the power in my house to see what is going on. I just built the house 2 and moved in 2 months ago so maybe there was something wrong with the wiring.

 

[Pagali]

Quote:

Originally posted by Z8YOUNG Ok - I got it fixed. So now i have two new UltimateTV units coming to my door in a few days but all I needed to do was pull the access card. I ended up unplugging everything from the back, pulling the access card and waiting for 10 minutes. I then put the power in and it immediately powered up, I then inserted the access card and plugged in everything. I had to do this for both units. It's amazing that tech support didn't know that this could be done! Thank you all for helping me out with this problem. The sad thing is is that my computer downstairs that I just finished building, is completely fried - and it was also plugged into a Belkin power suppressor. I'm going to have an electrician come and check the power in my house to see what is going on. I just built the house 2 and moved in 2 months ago so maybe there was something wrong with the wiring.

I'm glad the access card trick worked! sorry I didn't see this thread earlier today... could have saved you a whole day of worry!

 

[UncleJunior]

The access card trick worked for me too! I was able to cancel my order for a replacement UTV and save some money!

 

[wrb]

Interesting ..... one of my UTV was DEAD as well yesterday...no response.... lights out .... completely powered down drive stopped, no fan etc however AC was active at distribution. It may be we lost power for a second or two I don't recall... my other UTV is on a "ups" and is fine.. so far..


The only way I got it to turn on again was to completely disconnect all connections, pull the access card and wait a few minutes then start it up again and all was well! Strange indeed... I wonder how many UTV's went back as bad to RCA with nothing wrong with them reported as DOA..


Oh well sure would like to know the inside facts are on this one... most strange indeed .. I have unpluged my UTV many a time and it always started back up when pluged in again.


Had I not read this thread I would have been out $80 or so... or been processing my extended warranty and waiting for a replacement unit...

 

[DrSchmoe]

I am not sure how many people might have experienced problems, but I would also examine the various forms of grounding.


Firstly, if the dish is not properly grounded it can build up a fairly substantial static-charge. This charge can be fed back to the receiver via the RG-6 (and thus fry the tuners). Another example of improper grounding is that you can kill your LNB (in these situations they tend to fail w/in a year).


Since the dish requires power you can't run your RG-6 through a surge suppressor unless you get creative... You can install a powered switch between the suppressor and dish. The other problem is the RG-6 may potentially burn out the surge suppressor since they are not designed with current-carrying coax in mind (unless the jack is specifically for 'satellite use').


Additionally, you may wish to examine the ground line on your house... Surge suppressors can only dump power if they have a clean ground. I have seen a home where the ground had some problems and was carrying a fairly substantial current (this became evident when I was able to arc electricity to a screwdriver). In these types of situations it becomes difficult for line conditioners to operate.